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Today is
Wednesday, April 2, the 92nd day of 2014. There are 273 days left in the year.

Highlights in history

• In
1792, Congress passed the Coinage Act, which authorized establishment of the U.S.
Mint.

• In
1863, during the Civil War, the Richmond Bread Riot erupted in the Confederate
capital as a mob outraged over food shortages and rising prices attacked and looted stores.

• In
1917, President Woodrow Wilson asked Congress to declare war against Germany,
saying, “The world must be made safe for democracy.” Congress declared war four days later.

• In
1932, aviator Charles A. Lindbergh and John F. Condon went to a cemetery in the
Bronx, N.Y., where Condon turned over $50,000 to a man in exchange for Lindbergh’s kidnapped son.
The child was not returned and was found dead the following month.

• In
1956, the soap operas
As the World Turns and
The Edge of Night premiered on CBS-TV.

• In
1968, the science-fiction film
2001: A Space Odyssey, produced and directed by Stanley Kubrick, had its world premiere in
Washington, D.C.

• In
1982, Argentine troops seized the disputed Falkland Islands, located in the south
Atlantic, from Britain, which seized the islands back the following June.

• In
2005, Pope John Paul II (left) died in his Vatican apartment at age 84.

•
Ten years ago: Flags of seven new NATO members from former communist Europe rose
at alliance headquarters in Brussels for the first time, marking the biggest expansion in NATO’s
55-year history.

•
Five years ago: A 19-count federal racketeering indictment was returned against
former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

•
One year ago: North Korea said it would restart its long-shuttered plutonium
reactor and increase production of nuclear-weapons material, in what outsiders saw as its latest
attempt to extract U.S. concessions by raising fears of war.